SENTIENCE

Leonel appeared within the Segmented Cube once again and immediately returned to his and Aina's living quarters to find Anastasia staring out into blank space.

The little World Spirit seemed to be in a daze, not quite understanding what was going on around her.

Leonel didn't do anything but stand there. He didn't even talk to Aina, not wanting to disturb Anastasia.

Regardless of what he thought the success or not was, it all wouldn't matter unless Anastasia could see it through to the other side.

The harsh reality was that Leonel knew this was a risk. There was no guarantee that the Anastasia he knew would still be the same Anastasia after all of this.

Once success was confirmed, Anastasia would no longer be a normal existence. All things considered, she might even be classified as a new Race.

To get into the more nitty-gritty… Anastasia's mental capacity would be so great that it would be more than possible for her to "revisit" every aspect of her life before this and recontextualize it all.

Right now she was probably in a daze because that was precisely what she was doing.

If Leonel had done this for a normal human, a mortal even, not much would change immediately. After all, the mental capacity it would take to do what Anastasia was doing now was something only those like Leonel and those with Dream Force on par with himself could do.

But even then… Leonel had only experienced a bit more than a dozen decades of life or so. While Anastasia… owns all content.

Her life had to be calculated in the millions at least, no? And even that was being conservative.

To recontextualize all of that life, in as little as a few seconds, the results would be out.

Either she would be the same person or she would become someone completely different.

However, Leonel had made a promise.

Anastasia had always been important to his father although he didn't know the details of their time together.

His father was unwilling to allow Anastasia to sacrifice herself. It could be said that if Anastasia had just repeated what she had done before, sacrificing her Grade to protect his father from the Regulator, he would still be here.

Leonel had deduced all of this long ago, but he never blamed Anastasia for it.

She was family.

If his father treated her like that, he would. And on top of that, she had already carved out her own individual place in his heart.

Suddenly, Anastasia looked up and met Leonel's gaze.

Leonel could immediately feel that it was different. He wasn't just staring at Anastasia anymore, he was staring at an almighty being that had lived for millions of years.

He sighed inwardly. It seemed that the answer was quite obvious.

It was impossible to recontextualize millions of years of life and come out the same.

He had already run the simulations. The odds weren't even part of a millionth of a percent. It was an unfathomably small probability.

His simulations were more accurate now than they had ever been. He had known that he wouldn't be wrong, but he couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed anyway.

At that moment, Anastasia's expression changed again and she blinked. Right then, she looked no different from the old Anastasia, and she was about to speak, but Leonel smiled and shook his head.

"The fact you have that intention is fine enough by me," Leonel said with a grin. "You don't have to have it, I know that would just kill you. I did this to set you free, not trap you in another cage.

"I want to learn about the real Anastasia."

Anastasia blinked in surprise but then she shook her head as though lamenting something. It seemed that she should have known that fooling Leonel wouldn't be so easy.

If she had wanted a chance, then she should have probably hidden the depth of her eyes from the start. But maybe she had subconsciously let it slip because she wanted to hear these exact words from Leonel.

"How do you feel?" Leonel asked.

"… Burdened…"

Anastasia's voice sounded slightly deeper than usual. Not like she had become a man, but rather like a more mature woman. Though, her form hadn't changed very much.

World Spirits could look however they want. So the fact Anastasia was still in this form just meant that it was the one she was most comfortable with, and there was no reason for her not to be.

"What's wrong?" Leonel asked. Though, from the look in his eyes, it seemed he already had an answer.

"… I don't think World Spirits were meant to have such… awareness…" she said softly.

Her eyes dimmed a bit.

Being a tool in the cog of Existence's wheel was a nice place to be if you had no personality, no desires, no aspirations. But what happened when you suddenly had them?

And what happened when you recontextualized all your life to the point you felt like you had just relived it all?

All of that loneliness… just the sheer pointless nature of it all.

It was hard to accept. Maybe it wasn't just that ignorance was bliss, but being able to avoid this sort of pain… wouldn't it have been better?

"I thought of this as well," Leonel replied with a touch of gentleness to his voice. "If you truly want to go back to how things were, I won't stop you."

Anastasia was a hint surprised by Leonel's words. He was essentially accepting the possibility of giving up maybe the strongest treasure in all of Existence right now.

The things she could do now were simply incomparable to the past.

"Or," Leonel continued, "you can forge a new life for yourself. Sentience is a burden. After all, a tree doesn't fear for its life, and there's a certain peace to that…

"But a tree also can't experience happiness. Would you like to find out how?"